Reaction after Ireland beat France 24-9 in the 2015 Rugby World Cup on Sunday (11th October) to seal top spot in Pool D and a quarter-final against Argentina.

France will face world champions New Zealand in the last eight, a repeat of their 2007 quarter-final at the same stadium and the 2011 final.

Script:

SOUNDBITE: (English) Philippe Saint-Andre, France head coach (Q: Will you be looking back to 2007 for any guidance for the next game?)

"In a game of rugby you never know and what is important for us is to stick together and to accept that today we didn't perform well and to be ready for Saturday for a huge, huge game against the All Blacks."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Philippe Saint-Andre, France head coach (Q: Who would you prefer to have played in the quarter-final, New Zealand or Argentina, and was there any element of bluffing tonight?)

"We didn't on purpose (to play) New Zealand. Today Ireland deserved to win, so now we don't have the choice, we play New Zealand. We know it is a tough game, but we are not out of the competition, so."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Joe Schmidt, Ireland head coach (Q: Can you give me your thoughts on the match?)

"The squad should be proud in the way that they prepared themselves this week for what was always going to be a massive challenge. The challenge grew in complication when we lost Jonny Sexton early in the game and Paul O'Connell just before half-time and Peter O'Mahoney. I think that's 200 plus caps and it does make it a challenge to make sure that the experience and the calm heads are there."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Joe Schmidt, Ireland head coach (Q: Have you seen the incident with Sean O'Brien and are you concerned he could be hit with a ban?)

"I certainly hope not, I think he was being held at the time, he swung, I don't think he is looking directly at the player, but it is not for me to determine. I also think it's not a closed fist. I'd be hopeful, but it is not a decision for me, it's hopefully not something that impacts on us. Considering the dressing room at the moment, with the amount of injuries that we have, we can ill afford to lose another player, particularly a player of Sean's experience and standing in the group."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Joe Schmidt, Ireland head coach (Q: What kind of challenge do you expect from Argentina?)

"They put the All Blacks under an immense amount of pressure and we know for us that the physicality, the speed, the skill of the Argentineans is going to challenge us massively. Their set piece is going to be a challenge and for us really to be honest today was a bit of an end point. We haven't done a huge amount of work on looking ahead, just because we didn't know we would be playing, we have that much respect for the French that we knew it was going to be incredibly tough and we wanted to stay fresh and take a fresh look at the week ahead once we'd got this game done. Make no mistake I've certainly kept a close on them."